As the twins get older and I continue to heal from pregnancy and birth, I am finding myself getting more and more stir crazy.
Before they were born, I was determined that having twins wasn’t going to stop me from doing anything I would normally do pre-twins. Whether that was hiking, traveling, working, or studying, I was going to make it work.
Turns out, though, that sheer willpower alone cannot resolve how difficult it is to be out and about with twins. If I’m alone, there are things I literally cannot do, no matter how stubborn or strong-headed I may be.
For example, hiking? Impossible. They’re currently too big for the made-for-twins baby carrier, yet too small for me to wear one on my back. If I want to go hiking, I need another adult with me.
Grocery shopping? Forget it. I could maybe wear one baby and put the other one’s car seat in the cart, but I’m buying food for a family of seven — I need the cart! I could also maybe push the stroller and pull the cart, or vice versa, but again — family of seven!! That cart is always filled to the brim and tricky to maneuver. I, once again, need another adult with me, or I wait for my husband to be home and go alone.
All this to say, as someone who would describe themselves as fiercely independent, this has been a huge adjustment in my life. And I’m not exactly handling it with grace.
My husband noticed that I’ve been struggling extra with this, and we’ve also been missing each other lately (I work 9am-3pm and he works 4pm-11pm), so we decided that for our first off-day together in months, we were going to head to the mountains.
The first two hurdles of the day were going to be (1) actually getting on the road and (2) surviving the 1.5 hour drive.
We left the double stroller home, since we would be hiking and wouldn’t need it, and that freed up some room in our trunk. But we still needed two baby carriers, tons of diapers and wipes, two sets of pump parts, my breastmilk cooler and milk bags, a picnic blanket, a cooler full of snacks and lunch, and several baby bottles.
Once all that was crammed into the back of my car, we immediately fed the babies right before loading them up, in hopes that they would nap for the drive. The younger twin, Evelyn, hates being in her car seat, so we were a little nervous about how this would play out.
The plan for the day was to head up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and then, once there, stop at a bunch of scenic overlooks along the way and do some of the shorter hikes. I was a little nervous to venture too far away from the car, just in case one of the twins (read: Evelyn) starting freaking out, so this seemed like the best option to see some beautiful scenery without ending up stranded in the woods with a screaming baby.
Oh and did I mentioned that I was also going to be pumping during the drive? That’s about as fun as it sounds, but since I’m basically out of commission when I pump, this timing just made the most sense.
The girls did wonderful for the first half hour, up until our stop at a Chick-fil-a for breakfast. Evelyn was already hungry again, but Emersyn was still content, so Kevin held her while I fed Evelyn her bottle.
Once everyone’s bellies were full, we loaded the girls back into the car, ready to complete the last 45 minutes of our drive. We could see the mountains off in the distance at this point, and I was getting really excited!
We made it to the Blue Ridge Parkway without any issues, and were thrilled to see that the temperature on the dash of my car was reading a good 15-20 degrees cooler than it was at the start of our drive. Given that there was a heat advisory back home because it was supposed to be nearly 100 degrees that day, we were happy to be at a higher elevation!
As we pulled onto the parkway, “Dan” by Noah Khan started playing. I was looking out both windows, soaking in all of the lush Southern greenery and the rolling Appalachian mountains. The song got to the part where Noah sings, “Where do we go when we die? I wouldn’t mind right here, I wouldn’t mind at all,” and I actually started to tear up.
Not only was I finally back in one of my favorite places again after a really rough year, but I had my best friend and husband with me, and our two adorable little girls. Heaven won’t be heaven for me if it doesn’t look like a North Carolina summer with my family.
I was worried that the elevation change would bother the girls’ ears on the drive up, but they remained relatively unfazed. Emersyn was starting to let us know that she was getting hungry, though, so we stopped as soon as we saw the first overlook.
I pulled Evelyn out of her carseat so we could walk around a bit, while Kevin popped the trunk and fed Emersyn back there. It was definitely one of our most scenic feeding sessions to date!
Emersyn finished up her bottle in no time, so we buckled the girls back in their seats and hopped back on the parkway. The plan was to stop at Moses Cone Memorial Park for a short hike, a picnic lunch, and a pumping break, before driving a little farther to see Price Lake or Rough Ridge.
The closer we got to Moses Cone, though, the more orange warning signs we saw along the side of the road:
‘Road closed ahead’
‘Detour ahead’
‘Parkway closed at milepost 294’
“Where’s milepost 294?” Kevin asked.
“I think it’s past Moses Cone, but let me check.” I responded, pulling up Google while I still had service. “Oh,” I went on, “Moses Cone is at milepost 294.”
Sure enough, once we made it a few miles down the road, there were giant barriers blocking off the Blue Ridge Parkway just past the visitor’s center. Since we didn’t have much of a choice, we decided to just spend more time at Moses Cone before heading home.
We parked the car, put on the baby carriers, and headed towards a trail that I have done many, many times. I brought my first daughter here when she was only six weeks old, I brought my husband for the first time last summer along with our puppy, and I’ve come alone or with friends at least a half dozen other times.
We must have been quite the spectacle with each of us carrying a twin, because not ten minutes into the hike, a nice couple stopped us to ask about the twins and their names, and they also offered to snap a photo of us.
When I was pregnant with twins, I heard all about how annoying these encounters are, how twin moms can never leave the house without feeling like they’re the town’s next circus performance. I was bracing myself for the worst.
But truthfully, I love moments like this. First off, my husband and I hardly ever get photos together any more, much less with the babies. But on a deeper level, anyone who wants to ask about the twins or wants to tell me about their cousins or neighbors or best friend’s babies that are twins aren’t annoying — they’re trying to make a connection. They’re being kind.
Maybe I’ll grow tired of it eventually, but for now, I don’t mind at all. I love my girls and agree with alllll the comments we get about how blessed we are or how full our hands must be or how tired we probably are. It’s all true!
Once we reached the end of the shaded portion of the trail, we had a choice to make: we could either turn around and stay in the shade, or we could keep going a little further and go off of vibes.
I was conscious of every step we were taking away from the car, because with every step, we were also then one step farther from everything we would need in case a baby (read: Evelyn) were to wake up upset or start screaming.
With both Emersyn and Evelyn asleep in their carriers, though, I was feeling brave, so we pushed onwards.
We were greeted by a wonderful breeze as soon as we left the woods, which negated the fact that we were in the direct sun. We put the girls’ little sunhats on to protect them from the UV rays, and we only went another quarter of a mile or so before turning around.
While in the field, we ran into yet another nice couple who also offered to take our picture and had all sorts of questions about the twins. When we found out that the woman was 91 years old!!, I told her that I hoped to still be moving like her when I was your age. She just laughed and said, “Well if you’re chasing around twins, you will be!”
At the end of the day, it was a lot of effort to only hike two miles. But at the same time, this day trip was about so much more than that! Now, I
- feel more confident about getting out of the house by myself with the twins
- am rejuvenated from spending quality time both outside and with my husband, after lots of weeks in a row of feeling like all I do is work and sleep
- can look forward to and plan more adventures like this for the summer
- feel a little more confident about our flight and trip out to Utah next month (stay tuned for how that goes… still in a little bit of denial)
- can’t help but feel extra grateful for my health, my family, and all of the beautiful nature in my backyard just waiting to be explored.
I can’t wait to see where our next adventure will take us!
Step by Step Parenting 